You're a Racist, So I'm Defriending You on Facebook

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Been defriended on Facebook? Chances are the defriender thought you made offensive comments, didn't know you very well or were trying to sell them something, a report said today.

A study by NM Incite, shows that the main reasons people friend on Facebook are: know in real life (82 percent); mutual friends (60 percent); business networks (11 percent); and physical attractiveness (8 percent). Only about 7 percent say they friend everyone.

But as for reasons people dump friends: offensive comments (55 percent); don't know well (41 percent); trying to sell me something (39 percent); or depressing comments (23 percent). Some also defriend because of lack of interaction (20 percent), they don't like their political comments (14 percent) or breakup/divorce (11 percent).

Users also defriend for updating too often (6 percent) and not updating enough (3 percent), which goes to show that you just can't win on Facebook.

The study also says the average user has 130 friends and than men and women use the service differently. Men use it for business networking (48 percent) and dating (16 percent) while women tend to use it for a creative outlet (64 percent), finding bargains (58 percent) and giving feedback (54 percent). If that's the case, then you know who's friending because of physical attractiveness. However, the vast majority of users say Facebook keeps them in contact with friends and family (88 and 89 percent respectively.)

We think the Facebook population mirrors the real population in that friends break up for what seems like stupid or arbitrary things. However, the study does show that sometimes a break-up isn't just one thing, but an accumulation of comments or actions that eventually becomes unbearable..